The state of the art includes apparatus used in the domestic field to prepare pasta of different types and shapes, such as spaghetti, macaroni, gnocchi, bread-sticks, biscuits, pizza, flaky pastry or otherwise.
Such devices generally comprise a receptacle, or basket, into which the desired ingredients are poured to be amalgamated together by means of a rotary blade.
The receptacle co-operates at the lower part with an extrusion chamber comprising a feeding screw suitable to convey and push the dough against an interchangeable extruder defining the type and shape of the pasta.
Such devices as are known to the state of the art have shown themselves to be inefficient for various reasons.
First of all they are difficult to clean, as the extrusion chamber is made in a single piece with the box-like structure of the device, or can only be partly dismantled.
In the second case, moreover, the user often finds difficulties in dismantling and assembling the components because of the complicated systems used or because the sequences to dismantle and assemble the components are too complicated or do not respect a pre-defined logical order.
It is difficult, moreover, with conventional devices to produce perfectly amalgamated doughs and to transfer the whole from the receptacle to the extrusion chamber. This is because in conventional devices it often happens that a layer of dough remains on the bottom of the receptacle which is wasted and therefore a longer time is required to clean the receptacle.
Furthermore, with these devices it is difficult to introduce the ingredients inside the receptacle, as the upper cover has to be opened, and therefore the device has to be stopped, or an aperture on the cover has to be used, and the shape does not prevent flour or pieces of the dough from spilling out.
In some cases, moreover, in conventional devices, there have been cases where flour or portions of the dough have infiltrated inside the compartment housing the motor means or electric parts, with a danger of malfunctioning or risks for the user.
Moreover, with conventional devices there is the problem that the dough is distributed to the extruder in an uneven manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,318 and GB-A-2.021.921 disclose domestic apparatuses for the production of pasta having the features of the pre-characterising portion of claim 1.
However, these documents do not disclose guide and centering means provided on the internal wall of the housing of the apparatus and suitable to cooperate with mating guide and centering means provided on the external wall of the receptacle and extending substantially for the entire height of the receptacle itself. Thus, in these apparatuses, the operations of centering, insertion and extraction of the receptacle in/from the relative housing, and its coupling with the relative extrusion assembly, are rather complicated and cannot be carried out in an easy and fast way.
The present Applicant has devised and embodied this invention to overcome these shortcomings and to obtain further advantages.